Catheter assemblies are commonplace in the medical field and can be used for a variety of purposes including access to the bladder, blood vessels and epidural space within the spinal column. In most instances, these catheter assemblies are pre-assembled and ready-to-use. This reduces the time it takes to catheterize a patient as well as the human error and potential for infection that would exist if a medical professional were forced to manually assemble the catheter assembly on site.
These catheter assemblies consist of an adapter at one end that can connect the catheter assembly to a dispensing means and a flexible catheter tube with an internal lumen that is fluidly connected to the adapter, collar, or luer at one end and a needle at the other end. The needle end will typically have wings or another type of feature to allow the user to firmly grasp and control the needle during insertion into tissue or other medium. These wings also provide a surface that may be taped or otherwise secured to the patient or another substrate.
Unfortunately, the catheter assemblies currently used in in the medical field suffer from several disadvantages. These catheters tend to use solvent-based adhesives or other forms of chemical bonding to affix the catheter tube to the other components of the assembly. Use of these adhesives can increase the cost of manufacturing and, therefore, the cost of the catheter assembly itself. Moreover, such adhesives or bonding chemicals are hazardous to the environment.
In addition, the catheter assemblies currently used have one or more components that are fabricated from polyvinyl chloride (PVC). This also increases manufacturing cost as special protocols must be adhered to when manufacturing and disposing of PVC. PVC is also very hazardous to the environment. Another disadvantage of the current catheter assemblies is the excessive number of pieces required, which also increases the overall manufacturing cost.
The foregoing background describes some, but not necessarily all, of the problems, disadvantages and shortcomings related catheter assemblies. There is a general and pervasive need in the field to provide a catheter assembly that is environmentally friendly and durable, yet is also inexpensive to manufacture.